Published by Douglas Messerli, the World Cinema Review features full-length reviews on film from the beginning of the industry to the present day, but the primary focus is on films of intelligence and cinematic quality, with an eye to exposing its readers to the best works in international film history.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

J. C. Calciano’s
little gay film, Is It Just Me? tries
its hardest to pose as a grand gay romantic drama, but, alas, Calciano just
doesn’t have the writing chops nor the directing ability to carry it off.

First, his hero, the good-looking, if
not terribly handsome, Blaine (Nicholas Downs) seems at sea in the all-gay
community of West Hollywood, in which one has to presume in has selected to
live (one of the problems of Calciano’s film is that, except for Brice’s
“faghag” friend Ronnie [Lynee Chaille] there is not a single heterosexual
figure to be found in this movie). Although he’s, apparently, a successfully
gay columnist for a small gay newspaper, USATogay
(too too cute for my taste), he seems to be a bit shell-shocked by the open
sexual scene in which he finds himself, seemingly wanting a relationship
without any sexual exploration beforehand, or, as if the two weren’t truly
compatible for a serious gay being.

“Is it just me” he broods, “who is
actually seeking a relationship?” Apparently it is, according to the film’s
early scenes. His roommate, Cameron (Adam Huss), even more oddly, is a
standardly handsome go-go dancer and would-be actor, hardly ever seen alone in
this film but for a few minutes: Brice’s polar opposite. If Brice, accordingly,
is “looking for love,” he’s clearly looking in all the wrong places. And
everyone around him, quite obviously, sensing his out-of-place feelings, shun
him as if he were suffering from the plague.

Despite all of these neuroses, and the
use of his personal computer and even his phone by his sex-driven roommate,
Brice does find “Mr. Right” through a computer communication in the
good-looking, innocently laid-back young Texan Xander (David Loren). They talk
for hours, finding common ground in their musical interests—Xander is a budding
composer—and in their approach to love. Like Bruce, Xander also has an odd
roommate, but in his case a far more beneficial one, Ernie (Bruce Gray), who
spends most of his day cooking for and fawning on his young renter.

After their second on-line meeting, and
a cyber-sexual encounter, everything seems perfect, and they agree to meet
(actually having met before at a coffee shop without either of them knowing
it). Only problem, Brice discovers after they close off on their chat, is that
the man he’s expecting—a fact Brice has previously known nothing about—isCameron who has posted his picture (not
Brice’s) to Brice’s own Facebook site. The situation, called “catfishing,” of
luring someone in with fictional information or with a fake picture, is a cruel
reality on both gay and straight dating sites, and is seen as highly disgusting
behavior—particularly when you’re as gullible and trusting as Xander!

Yet, instead of immediately setting
things straight, the insecure Brice compounds the problem by insisting Cameron
accompany him on his first live date. And it is here that Calciano’s film moves
off into complete unbelievability.

Yes, Xander may be a kind of Texan hick
(Jon Voight’s Joe Buck all over again) who wants to believe in the goodness of
everyone he meets, but mightn’t he still, after speaking for long hours with
Brice for two nights, have recognized that Cameron’s was not the same as Brice’s?
Might he not have sensed that the self-assured Cameron, inviting him to visit
the bar where he dances at night, is not a bit like the unsure and constantly
apologetic man on the internet?

Of course, things go from bad to worse,
as Xander, visiting the bar, gets utterly drunk, Brice suffers a near
break-down, and Cameron takes the Texan home—presumably, as Brice, imagines, into
his bed—but actually into the bathroom to help him puke out his guts.

By this time the viewer has almost lost
all interest in either of these utterly “clueless” heroes, and begins to admire
the more robust Cameron, who at least helps out the two the best he can.
Perhaps, we begin to suspect, despite both of their denials, looks are more
important than what comes from the heart. Clearly both Brice and Xander have
misunderstood each other’s heart, and fallen in love instead with appearances
(Brice taken with Xander’s beauty and Xander with Cameron’s chiseled face). By
the time, seemingly hours later in this now slow-moving tale—particularly since
we know how it eventually must turn
out—Brice gets around to admitting the truth, Xander is ready to throw in the
towel, saved only by his “wise,” equally disappointed elder friend Ernie, who
finally gets up the energy to repeat to his young roommate the cliché “do not
give up on love.”

Ah, yes, love wins out—at least for the
moment! If only we could believe that there were real humans inside of these
sexual simpletons to actually experience it.

And
the very idea that Brice has suddenly been offered a job by the Los Angeles Times to write more of his
cynical gay sex columns, transformed this film, for me, into a fantasy beyond
the bounds of human ties—floating the film off into a fairyland space. I guess
I’m just lucky, having had lots of anonymous gay sex and a long romantic love
both.